Non-financial incentives as motivational strategies for employees and organizational performance in the Nigerian banking industry

This paper investigates the non-financial reward aspect of employee motivation towards enhancing organizational performance in the Nigerian banking industry. Primary data on features and system of operations of a sample of 192 regular staffs and 75 experts from five commercial banks were collected through the administration of questionnaire in Lagos state. T-test and analysis of variance test were used in analyzing the data obtained. Empirical findings reveal that financial incentives are stronger in the minds of employees than non-financial incentives. It shows that the monetary benefits (i.e. extrinsic rewards) favourably influence the intrinsic work motivation (i.e. the non-financial incentive). Non-financial incentives enhance employee motivation but they still prefer financial incentives such as cash bonuses or salary raises. Also, on-implementation of non-financial incentives in an organization has no impact on the motivation levels of employees as long as financial incentives continue. Moreover, non-financial incentives have greater impact on the work performance as work motivation is an important factor that improves employees’ performance. The study however, concludes that there is crucial dependence of intrinsic motivations on the extrinsic incentives. Thus, employees’ motivation and satisfaction are needed in the banking industry cause without these; customer satisfaction levels would be affected.